Star Fox: Last Lap
by ThatWinchieGuy
Summary: High School AU that takes place in Fox's senior year of high school. Includes many of the characters from all the Star Fox games and the 1992 comics, as well as a few OCs of mine. Their bios will be posted on my profile as they become important in the story. Reviews are always appreciated!
1. Exposition

**Welcome to my newest fic, Star Fox: Last Lap! This will be a fic set in an AU, in a High School in Upper Corneria City. The school's location and students will play a role on how the story pans out, so keep each student's home life in mind while reading; how much money do they have, what's their relationship with their family like, etc. **

**I don't want to spoil much, only that this fic has no bearing on my previous fics since it's in it's own separate universe, and that this fic takes place during Fox's senior year of High School, hence the name. **

**Reviews are greatly appreciated, as I do use fan fiction as a way to improve my writing, and constructive criticism is very handy. Follows and favorites are always appreciated as well. But for reviewing, instead of saying, "I like it.", I just ask that maybe you could tell me what you like, since that's more useful to me.**

**Thank you, and enjoy!**

**-ThatWinchieGuy**

Ever since he was a child, Fox had dreaded the first day of school. That fear always came back every year on that early September morning, when the schedule shifted from sleeping all day to getting up and traveling off to mandatory education. He'd always been told that this education would be necessary by everyone; his late parents, his teachers, his friends' parents. Fox never complained or protested, but deep in his mind sat the stinging feeling of knowing that all of this wouldn't even be considered after he graduated.

Today, however, the fear had been replaced by exhaustion. After nearly 14 years of the same thing, every year, Fox was ready to be done with school today and get on with his life. He groaned as he got up out of bed, his head once again slamming into the low ceiling of his room. Fox didn't care to impress anybody today, so he threw on whatever clothes were nearest to him and began the walk down the stairs.

"One more year, Fox…one more…" Fox sighed to himself, his voice inaudible underneath the creaking of the wooden stairs. Fox ducked his head down to avoid the small overhang, which dropped just over the entrance to the stairway. Peppy and Lucy were already up.

Fox had moved in with Peppy after his father had passed away about 6 years ago. Fox still thought about James McCloud often. Sometimes, he would dream about the same memory, over and over again; the memory of his father teaching him the controls of an Arwing. This dream often reoccurred more than once a week. Sometimes, the monotony was cut up by various new, re-surfacing memories which Fox thought he had forgotten. By now, Fox could easily remember what his father had been like via his dreams.

Fox couldn't say he loved living in the Hare residence, but it was better this than to be alone in some orphanage somewhere.

"Morning…" Fox mumbled, and squeezed himself down into a chair by the tiny table in the kitchen. Everything in the house was built just slightly too small for Fox. Being of a different species than Peppy and Lucy meant that anything you could think of-books, chairs, ceilings, rooms, tables, coffee pots, phones- was designed to be used by hares. Fox was not a hare, and that meant that being large became a daily annoyance for Fox.

"You driving?" Peppy asked, bringing food over to Fox and Lucy. Fox liked to be more independent than most, but he knew Peppy meant well and didn't seem visibly upset.

"Yeah… You want me to drive Lucy?" Fox offered as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Could you? She's a bit excited, by the way." Peppy said, motioning towards his daughter.

"Fox, what's high school like?" Lucy asked, bouncing around in her chair and eating excitedly. Lucy would be a freshman in Fox's high school this year. Fox remembered his own excitement and then utter disappointment on this exact day, three years ago. He debated quickly in his head whether or not to be truthful.

"Well…what do you want to know?" Fox replied.

"Everything!" Lucy exclaimed. Now he was in trouble. Fox never really thought of himself as an influence on Lucy's life, but he knew he was, and that this answer was important. He remembered how happy she'd been to finally have a "big brother" when Fox moved in, ears pressed firmly against his head in depression.

"I think it's something you should experience for yourself." Fox said, not wanting to hurt her feelings by telling her the truth, but also not wanted to lie to her. After he said, this, he focused on his food and Lucy left him alone.

Fox didn't really want to explain high school because it was…well…bland. Fox hated it. At this point, he finally understood why people always had to start fights over petty matters in school; because school would be boring without that "unnecessary," necessary drama. And, even going into senior year- the undisputed easiest year of high school- Fox still felt like he had ages to go before he could slap on that graduation cap and meander up to the podium, pretending that he'd miss all of it. He wouldn't.

Eventually, he'd head into the Cornerian Flight Academy and, most likely, graduate early with his prior knowledge and practical mastery of the Arwing. Then the real world would begin….

Star Fox…

He could see himself sitting in the commander's chair of the Great Fox when he closed his eyes for a short moment.

And then he opened them and he was back in his cramped home. The time came for Fox and Lucy to leave, so Fox stood up- knees bent- and walked out the door to his car. The high school was a few miles down a winding road, which lead to a suburban area just outside the city's limits. Fox liked driving; he liked all forms of transportation, really. Trains, buses, trucks, planes, starships, boats, cars, bikes, motorcycles…he could use all of them, and efficiently. Everything just seemed to click when Fox sat down in a driver's seat.

Fox pulled into the school's parking lot, noticing that Lucy's excitement had been replaced by wide eyes and silence.

"Nervous?" Fox asked.

"Me? No, not at all…" Lucy lied. Along with his affinity to vehicles, Fox had always been able to tell how people were feeling just by looking at them. He supposed he just had a knack for that.

"You sure?"

"What do I do first?" Lucy asked, ignoring Fox's question after realizing her lie had been noticed.

"Just find your friends; they go to this school, right?" Fox asked.

"Yeah…"

"So just go… and have fun. School'd be hell without it." Fox said, clasping his hand onto her shoulder. He felt almost like a dad to Lucy sometimes, even though they weren't related by blood.

"Okay…thanks, Fox." Lucy said, and stepped out of the car.

Fox watched Lucy head inside, and then left to go look for Falco.


	2. Assembly

Fox could practically smell the smoke from where he was standing.

Falco looked out the window and, upon seeing someone walking over to his car, panicked and began flailing his arms around to clear the air in his car.

Fox just chuckled. Evidently Falco didn't realize it was him yet. Fox tapped gently on the window and Falco froze, his expression retreating into itself; the sign of defeat.

"I swear sir, I don't know how it got here it was just here please don't expel me I swear to God it's not my weed I swear." Falco bumbled over his words, stepping out of the car with his head hanging loosely onto his neck.

"I didn't know you smoked before school got out." Fox said, ignoring Falco's rant, though his whole being wanted to mock the avian for it.

"Screw you man…jeez, you trying to kill me?" Falco said, eyes wide as though he was going insane.

Fox laughed this time.

"You okay for school though, seriously?" Fox asked.

"Fox, I haven't seen you in months and that's what you come up with? 'You okay?'"

"I'm used to missing people, Falco." Fox said, his face solemn.

"Oh come on man…you know I didn't mean it like that, right? I just wanted to have a little adventure, that's all!" Falco said.

"Man, whatever. Point is, you're back, and shit's gonna be normal again, right?" Fox asked. He wasn't really sure why he was forgiving him, especially since Fox spent the summer practically alone because Falco wanted to go to the beach and get laid.

"Yeah dude, we're back in business! Say, where's Fara?" Falco replied.

Fox stopped in his tracks, his mouth agape slightly as though he was gasping.

"No, no way man! No way you guys broke up!"

Fara had totally slipped Fox's mind until now. They'd dated for so long that Fox wasn't even sad when he found her with Panther. He was just…defeated. Fox could say that, without a doubt, that was the most similar feeling to death that he knew.

"She cheated on me. It's not a big deal." Fox finally replied, anger creeping into his voice.

"Not a big deal?! The fuck!? You guys dated for like, two years, man!"

"It's not a big deal, Falco. Chill." Fox was visibly angry now.

"Who is he? I wanna beat the shit out of that mother-"

"FALCO! Shut. Up. Please." Fox snapped. He was glad that they were practically alone in the parking lot.

"Fine, man. I get it. But how could you not be pissed?" Falco asked. Truth be told, Fox wanted to do all sorts of terrible things. To Falco, and to Fara, and to Panther, and to himself. He wanted to leap off a cliff into jagged rocks and raging waters, he wanted to pull Panther down with him, he wanted to feel Fara's soft body pressing against his again for one last time before he slit her whore throat at the point of his climax, he wanted to stab Falco in the chest for bringing it up. But Fox was very, very good at hiding away his emotions and tucking his all his grievances into tiny little orifices in his mind, never to be touched again.

"I am." Fox said, in monotone, "But I don't care. Why should I?"

"Because you could get her back." Falco meant well. He really did. And Fox knew that they were friends. Questionable friends, but friends. And he could trust Falco. But at this moment, all Fox wanted to really do was to walk through the tiny door of Peppy's house and crawl back up to his bed and sleep forever. He didn't want to deal with this shit right now.

"We gotta go to that assembly thing." Fox said, pushing away the subject violently.

"Yeah…yeah I guess we do." Falco said, skeptically.

…

Every year, on the first day of school, an assembly was held to "congratulate" the seniors on a job well done reaching this point. It was stupid, really, and nobody paid attention during it, but Fox sort of liked it because the theme of the speech was usually the four laps of a track. Freshman year was considered the first lap, sophomore year the second, junior year the third, and senior year the last. And Fox, being captain of the track team, liked this idea. Mostly because he knew, in reality, that the third lap was the hardest and the last lap was easy, but in part because he thought the whole idea was very clever.

"Where's Slippy?" Falco asked, not looking at Fox, but rather the backside of a junior girl named Gianna.

"I don't know." Fox added. He was still upset about the incident in the parking lot. It was as if the second he parked that car, reality punched him square in the face and send him flying into the dirt.

"He'll find us. You got your schedule yet?" Falco asked, still staring at Gianna.

"Yeah, what lunch are you in?"

"Fourth period." Falco replied.

"Same. I guess we're eating together yet again." Fox sighed. It was because of fourth period lunch in freshman year that Fox met Falco to begin with.

Fox had been sitting all alone, still traumatized by his father's tragic death. Falco, too, was all alone and quiet. Falco had always been assertive, and sat down across from Fox, striking up a conversation. The two had been friends ever since. It was weird, their friendship. Falco and Fox, despite being two very goofy people, had real, deep conversations quite often. Maybe this was caused by the lack of father figures that they shared. Fox never understood why he liked the avian, he just did. Even when he was an asshole and ditched him to go to the beach all summer without any prior warning, Fox still wanted him back.

"Settle down, students, settle down." The principle, Mr. Simonetti, had broken Fox's train of thought.

"Now, I know you're all very eager to begin classes, so I will try to be brief." He joked. Nobody laughed.

"As you know, you're all seniors now. You're on the last lap of high school, so congratulations are in order. Give yourselves a hand!" The seniors clapped lifelessly.

"I should hope, ladies and gentlemen, that you know your place in the school; that you are the mentors, the leaders, and that you are role models for all those who are underneath you." Falco laughed at that one.

"Heh…underneath. Fox. Fox, get it? Fox?" Falco said, his eyes bloodshot.

"Yeah, I get it Falco."

"Fox. Fox, look." Falco said, pointing blatantly to Slippy, who was sitting next to somebody unfamiliar to Fox.

"What?"

"Fox. Fox. That is a FE-MALE." Falco said, obviously stoned. He usually didn't get like this. Fox couldn't figure out why he'd smoke so much. Maybe Falco had some skeletons in his closet, too. It was likely.

"Yeah, Falco. That's a girl." Fox said, pushing Falco off of him. Mr. Simonetti kept talking.

"Fox. Fox, Slippy….heheheh…."

Fox hated Falco when he was high.

"Falco, shut up, jeez. People are staring."

"You sound like my mom…." Falco said, and fell asleep, slumped over in his chair.

"Christ…" Fox groaned as Mr. Simonetti finished his speech.

"And remember, ladies and gentlemen, that this will be one of the defining moments in your young lives. Have a good day." He said. Fox chuckled. Defining moment, eh? Sure, Mr. Simonetti, sure.

Fox let Falco keep sleeping; a little payback was in order, he decided. Detention should serve him good.

…..

Fox's first class was math.

"Great." Fox sighed for the thousandth time today. He hated math, but he knew two people who he hated even more than pre-calculus would be there.

Fara Phoenix and Panther Caruso.

He swore he'd go insane if he saw them together every day for the next ten months. He'd kill somebody, he swore it.

Fox sat down in his usual spot in any math class; the back, right hand corner of the room, which faced the window that overlooked the city. Fox enjoyed watching the various planes fly high above the glimmering windows of the city's skyscrapers, which reflected the sunlight directly into Fox's eyes. Sometimes he got caught not paying attention, but he really didn't care. Occasionally there would be that hint of hope in his mind, that one of the ships up there would be piloted by James McCloud, but this hope was quickly doubted and forgotten.

And, sure enough, Fara sat down right in front of him, just like she had for the past two years. His ears flared back in disgust.

"Are you sitting there because you want to or because it's a habit?" Fox snarled.

"Uhg…Fox, shut up." Fara said, not looking at him.

"Oh, I have to shut up? I'm not the one who snuck around for two months with some deadbeat."

"Fox…you don't understand."

"I understand perfectly! You cheated on me for no reason!" Fox said, raising his voice.

"Shh! Do you want the whole damn school to know?!" Fara whispered.

"Sort of, yes."

"Fox, just stay quiet."

"Give me a reason."

Fara sighed and tried to come up with some excuse when Panther walked in, giving her an out. Fox huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. He didn't even want to look at her.


End file.
